The English Drama

From the
Beginnings to the
Jacobean Period
(from the 12th
century to 1625)
The Drama in the 12th Century and 13th
Century .

The first forms of dramatic performance took place

in the Churches during the Mass and they
represented Old Testament stories, Christs
nativity the Crucifixion

In 1240 the Pope ordered that the plays had to be

performed outside the church.

Many theatrical forms developed:

Mystery plays
Miracle plays
Cycle plays
Corpus Christi plays.
The plays were:
dramatisations of the Bible

performed first in the

churchyard and then on the
market square

presented at Christmas, Easter

and on other public holidays

organized by the guilds of

carpenters, tailors who
cooperated to produce the play
and chose a play according to
their craft or skills (e.g.: Bakers:
The Last Supper/ Winemakers:
The Wedding of Cana) .
The Elizabethan and Jacobean
Drama
Influences:

Henry VIII s Schism from Rome and

Reformation put an end to Medieval religious
drama.
Humanism revived interest in classical drama and
plays of Plautus, Terence and Seneca were translated
into English.
An example of Senecas influence on English drama
can be seen in the works of Thomas Kid. His most
popular play was The Spanish Tragedy and it
includes many Senecan elements.
The Elizabethan and Jacobean
Drama
Senecan elements

Horror /Violence/Bloodshed
Villains/Corruption/Intrigue
Supernatural
The human motive of revenge to substitute the
religious idea that divine justice and fate would
punish those who broke the moral law.
The division of the play into five acts.
The soliloquy and psychologically morbid
characters
Why Drama
Flourished
Theatre appealed to all social
classes and plays could be
understood both by the illiterate
and by the intellectuals
There had been a strong
theatre-going tradition since
the Middle Ages.
The theatre was patronised by
the Court and by the
aristocracy.
The language of the drama
was less artificial than that of
poetry.
The prosperity of the
Elizabethan and Jacobean
periods meant that people had
both time and money to go to
the theatre.
The Principle of Order and
Drama.
The Principle of Order and Drama

Drama was linked to the Elizabethan world which was based on

the Principle of Order.

Early Elizabethan pictured the universal order as having three

main forms:
A chain
A series of corresponding planes
A cosmic dance

Early Elizabethans found comfort in the existence of a great chain

of being stretching down from God to angels, men, animals and
to inanimate objects (vertical level) and everything was
contained and harmonized in corresponding several classes of
being (horizontal planes).
The Principle of Order and Drama

Each class had its leader; e.g. :gold, lion, eagle, the sun and
King. Everything in the universe contributed towards the
development and well-being of other species.

Man was the central link:

his body linked him to the animal world below him
his soul linked him to the spiritual world above him.

Man was at the centre of the universe because the moon,

the sun, all planets and stars revolved in orbit around the earth.

The king was a man who derived his power from God and held
together the social and political fabric established by God
and Nature.
Factors which Undermined
Elizabethan Beliefs
A number of factors
weakened late Elizabethan
and Jacobean beliefs in the
principle of universal order:
The development of modern
experimental science
which displaced man from
the centre of creation.
The Prince by Machiavelli
which rejected the notions of
a divinely ordained political
hierarchy.
Fears of wars for succession.
 Effects of the Disruption of
Traditional Beliefs.
Many Elizabethan dramatists were concerned with the
hierarchical order of the universe and what could occur if it was
broken.

In particular Shakespeare highlighted in some of his plays some

causes which could lead to the loss of the traditional order:
unrest and civil strife;
appetite for power/lust/
kings relinquishing their responsibilities;
disobedience

He explored their disastrous effects:

disharmony, chaos, subversion of natural world and cosmic
disorder; insanity and tragedy; characters are full of passions
and doubts and question the world around them constantly.
Theatres and Acting Companies
 The Actors

The actors
Actors were descendants of
Medieval street performers.
In 1572 a law classified actors as
vagabonds putting them at risk of
being imprisoned. To overcome the
problem actors started working in
companies patronized by
noblemen.
These noblemen granted the actors a
letter of permission which allowed
them to travel around the
country.
The company took the name after
their patrons: The Earl of
Leicesters Men, The Lord
Chamberlain s Men
The Companies
A theatre company was a commercial enterprise in which all
partners were sharers.
At Shakespeares time there were about 20 companies in London .
The plays were property of each company and obviously were not
published.
However pirate versions were written shorthand during the
performances; eg. the circulation of these illegal versions made the
editing of Shakespeares works very difficult.
As acting was considered immoral there were no women in the
companies and female parts were played by boys.
An average play had a cast of about 20 people:
Main actors
Three or four boys for womens roles
Six or more men played minor roles, worked as musicians, stage
managers, wardrobe keepers, prompters .
Companies played in London in the winter and spring and travelled
around the country in summer.
An Elizabethan Theatre
The Theatres and Conventions
Before building permanent
playhouses plays were
performed in the yards of
the inns.
Playhouses were built
outside the city because
they were considered
immoral centres of
corruption.
The first playhouse was
The Theatre (1576)
followed by The Rose, The
Swan and the Globe.
Elizabethan theatres

Circular or polygonal

With three tiers of galleries around a pit .

The pit had no roof, no seats and was occupied by spectators

who paid the basic one penny ticket and stood throughout the
performance.

The stage projected out into the courtyard and had two parts:

The outer stage: the main action of the play took place here

The inner stage: used when a scene took place in a more

confined place (e.g.: the tomb scene in Romeo and Juliet).

Below the stage there was a cellar called the Hell:

Through the stage trap actors in the Hell playing the
parts of ghosts or fairies made dramatic appearances.
Over the main stage there was a place called the
Heavens.
In the Heavens there was a place for the musicians
and a hut housing the machine for lowering gods,
angels
At the back of the stage there was a tiring house
were the actors changed.
If a flag flew from the top of the playhouse it meant
that a show was in progress.
The performance took place in daylight.
The plays lacked intervals.
Elizabethan plays used no painted scenery and only a few
properties (props): a chair, a throne
The setting was usually indicated in the characters speeches.
Death scenes were very gory and realistic and animal organs
and blood were often used to make battle scenes more realistic
There being no front curtain dead bodies had to be carried
off the stage at the end of the scene.
The elaborate sixteenth century costumes of the actors did
not respect historical accuracy.